07.09.2003 TITLE RACE CLOSES UP AFTER BIAGI & BOBBI FAIL TO SCORE IN SWEDEN
FIA
GT CHAMPIONSHIP RD 7: RACE REPORT, LAP-BY-LAP & DRIVER QUOTES
A Dunlop clean sweep in sunny Sweden erased all memories of the 2002 rain, with impressive wins for British teams Lister Racing in the GT category and EMKA in the N-GT class. 22000 spectators came to the Scandinavian Raceway to watch the on-track action, and were rewarded with a fine race, with plenty of overtaking, some exciting battles and a few spectacular spins into the gravel during the 112 lap, three hour race.
FIRST 2003 WIN FOR LISTER RACING
The Swedish sun shone on Lister Racing this weekend, with the British team taking its first win of the season after coming so close on many occasions. Jamie Campbell-Walter and Nathan Kinch brought the nr 14 Lister Storm across the line 52 seconds ahead of the Konrad Saleen S7-R, with the second Lister Racing car third. Starting fifth on the grid, after missing a lot of track time during practice, the Storm ran strongly at the start, climbing up to third behind the Saleens. Nathan took the car over in second place, and gradually overtook Toni Seiler in the Konrad, handing a good lead back over to Campbell-Walter, who came home to break the jinx which had seemed to plague the 2000 Champions this season. “This win has been a long time coming, and everyone has worked really hard,” Campbell-Walter explained. “The team did a fantastic job in the pits, and by the end we could just cruise really. But towards the end I put in my fastest lap just to show the Dunlop boys how good they are !”
With the nr 23 BMS Scuderia Ferrari 550 Maranello of Bobbi and Biagi going out in a first-lap incident, and the second Lister Racing Storm of Andrea Piccini and David Sterckx finishing third, the Championship classification has closed up, promising an exciting end to the season. Although Bobbi and Biagi still lead with 50 points, Gollin, Cappellari, Bryner and Calderari are just seven points behind, while Andrea Piccini is 13 points behind the leaders. In the Teams classification, BMS Scuderia Italia has a 30-point lead over Lister Racing, with 54 points still in play.
EMKA RACING MAKES IT AN ALL BRITISH DAY
Steve O’Rourke’s EMKA Racing Porsche 996 GT3-RS has been fast all weekend, with Emmanuel Collard and Tim Sugden fastest in practice and qualifying. Despite dropping back slightly at the start, when Sugden went wide trying to avoid spinning cars in front of him, the nr 61 Porsche climbed back up the field to dominate the extremely competitive N-GT class, and take its second win of the season. This was also the second Anderstorp win for French driver Collard, who won here in the rain in the Freisinger Motorsport Porsche last year. “This seems to be a good track for me,” Collard commented. “The car has been very good in qualifying and in the race, and it’s nice to come here and win after the disappointment in Spa,” Sugden agreed. The team’s main rival throughout the weekend has been the nr 52 JMB Racing Ferrari 360 Modena of Andrea Bertolini and Fabrizio De Simone, and this proved true in the race as well. Unfortunately for the French team, a gearbox problem took them out of the running. Joining EMKA on the all-Dunlop shod podium were Championship leaders Stéphane Ortelli and Marc Lieb, who overcame a difficult-to-drive car to claim a well-deserved finish, and the nr 88 Team Maranello Concessionaires Ferrari 360 Modena car of Jamie Davies and Darren Turner.
In the classification, Freisinger Motorsport now lead Team Maranello Concessionaires by 26 points, with JMB Racing nine points behind the British team. In the Drivers, Ortelli and Lieb’s nearest rival is now Jamie Davies, on 39.5 points, 16.5 points behind the leaders. A second win has brought Tim Sugden up to a fine fifth place.
THE GT STORY
While pole sitter Walter Lechner Jr, in the nr 2 Konrad, took a fine start and pulled out a good lead, followed by Tommy Erdos in the nr 7 Graham Nash Motorsport Saleen, the rest of the field had to avoid a spinning nr 23 Ferrari 550 Maranello. In the confusion, the nr 11 Roos Viper suffered a damaged front bonnet, which flew off at the end of the long straight. Lechner was on the pace from the beginning, setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 8 and pulling out a lead of 11 seconds over the Graham Nash Saleen by lap 14, with the nr 14 Lister close behind. Piccini, in the nr 15 Lister who had dropped back at the start, moved up to fourth on lap 24, just behind the nr 14 car.
On lap 28, Campbell-Walter overtook the nr 7 GNM Saleen for second. It was Piccini’s turn to try to overtake the Saleen, a manoeuvre which ended in the Graham Nash car going off the track, damaging the car and effectively putting it out of contention. When the first round of driver changes took place, Kinch took over the nr 14 Storm and gradually caught up with Toni Seiler, taking the lead on lap 51. Ten laps later, he had a lead of 7 seconds over the Konrad car, building it up to nearly 20 seconds by the time he handed the car back over to Campbell-Walter.
The nr 14 Lister retained the lead until the end, with the Konrad Saleen of Franz Konrad, Walter Lechner Jr and Toni Seiler 52 seconds behind, and the second Lister Storm of Piccini and Sterckx a distant third. Fourth place went to Cappellari and Gollin in the nr 22 BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari 550 Maranello, after a difficult race, with the nr 21 Care Racing Ferrari of Bryner and Calderari fifth. Despite struggling with a bonnet problem, the Zwaan’s Racing Chrysler Viper of Rob and Arjan van der Zwaan and Klaus Abbelen finished sixth. The new entrant, the nr 19 Creation Autosportif Lister Storm of Gounon and Knapfield, took two points for seventh after struggling with oversteer and two trips into the gravel, while the nr 9 JMB Racing Ferrari, which had run strongly but stopped before the end with suspension problems, was classified 8th and took the final point.
THE N-GT STORY
Tim Sugden, starting from pole in the nr 61 EMKA Racing Porsche, lost places at the start when he went wide to avoid the start-line confusion, meaning that the nr 52 JMB Racing Ferrari took the lead, followed by the nr 50 Freisinger Porsche and the nr 99 RWS Yukos car. However, Sugden rapidly climbed back up, and by lap 19 he was only 5 seconds behind the Ferrari. The EMKA car stayed out while most of its N-GT rivals made pit-stops, and by the time it pitted on lap 46, the car was lying fourth overall, ahead of the nr 88 Team Maranello Concessionaires car, which had also not pitted.
The JMB Ferrari then regained the lead, ahead of the nr 50 Freisinger Porsche. However, a gear-box problem hit the nr 52 Ferrari, giving the nr 61 Porsche the definitive lead, with Collard and Sugden finishing a lap ahead of Ortelli and Lieb, with the nr 88 TMC Ferrari 360 Modena third. Daoudi and Jones were pleased with a fourth-place finish in the nr 99 RWS Yukos Motorsport Porsche 996 GT3-RS. The second Freisinger Porsche was fifth, giving the team another four points in their fight to retain the Championship. Mark Mayall and Jürgen von Gartzen, running under the Eurotech entry, were sixth, with the nr 57 MENX Ferrari seventh and the nr 77 RWS Yukos Porsche of Fomenko and Vasiliev taking the final point for eighth. The only car not to be classified was the nr 89 Team Maranello Concessionaires Ferrari 360 Modena, which went out with electrical problems.
| THE
RACE LAP-BY-LAP
Race
Start : 12:20, Total distance : 125 laps = 503.1 km or 3 hours
Weather : sunny and warm, quite windy, track dry Start
The two Saleens get away smoothly, but behind them the nr 23 spins at the
start, with contact between some cars; the nr 10 is seen to be trailing
its rear bumper
Jamie
Campbell-Walter and Nathan Kinch take their first win of the season - first
GT win for Kinch. The Konrad Motorsport Saleen takes second - the
team's first podium
|
Darren Turner - nr 88 Team Maranello Concessionaires Ferrari 360 Modena - 3rd in N-GT : "The weekend has been OK; this was our first time at the circuit and we had a lot to learn. We are reasonably pleased, but we were surprised by the pace of the guys at the front. We thought that after about 10 laps they would slow down, but they didn't. But it's good that the car lasted the distance, and maybe if we can get the speed back, we can go for more points at the next rounds."
Jamie Davies - nr 88 Team Maranello Concessionaires Ferrari 360 Modena - 3rd in N-GT : "It was quite a tough race, just pushing as hard as possible to try and get the most out of the car, pushing as hard as possible every lap to try to close the gap. But the car wasn't working as we would have liked, we didn't have enough grip."
Luca
Cappellari - nr 22 BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari 550 Maranello - 4th in GT
: "That was a very hard race. We lost six positions at the start
during Bobbi's accident. Due to the ballast and the smaller restrictors,
we have lost straight-line speed, so it was difficult to climb back up.
But the team did a great job in the pits and we came up to fourth.
This was very good for the Championship, as Fabrizio Gollin and I are now
only seven points behind Bobbi and Biagi, and I think there will be a big
fight for the rest of the season."
